This restaurant was a complete disappointment. From being overcharged on our bill to experiencing terrible service, I cannot recommend it. We were also asked to pay for another guest's bill after they left, and the staff overlooked two items from their order. To make matters worse, we were asked to speak with the owner, which was both embarrassing and humiliating. The manager insisted on payment and even called enforcement. Overall, the entire experience was dreadful, and I advise anyone looking for a pleasant dining experience to steer clear of this place, it's under new management and our group was hoping to give this place some business, now I see why it was closed. read more

I've been disappointed in the past but I think they have finally turned a corner! I had great service from Mischa and the manager was friendly, knowledgeable and charming. Cheap, delicious perfectly cooked hot wings and a frosty pint for 15 bucks! I'll be back! read more

Visited symposium with a friend for a drink and some appetizers. We first ordered a picture of red sangria which was refreshing and contained some real cut fruit inside. I had the chicken quesadilla which was exactly how I had expected it to be. I enjoyed it. Was disappointed seeing that there seemed to be a square of processed cheese melted on top of the spinach dip. I have never seen this done at a restaurant before. It seems like this was a way for the restaurant to cut costs as processed cheese is cheap. There were also just squares of feta mixed into the dip that were not melted, making for a weird consistency. The service was good and they have a variety of cakes to choose from if you are interested in having dessert here. read more

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We were greeted promptly upon arriving. The wait staff was very kind and continued to check in on us throughout our service. The menu offered fair pricing for the large portions that were served to us. However, we did order the spinach dip as an appetizer - it lacked flavour and was served with a large piece of processed cheese melted on top. (I saw a review from a year ago with this same note, which indicates to me they have not made any changes based on reviews/recommendations). The atmosphere was elegant and unique - I would recommend this spot to unwind, enjoy a cocktail and/or coffee and desert. read more

Ordered Caesar salad dry brown rust on the Romain lettuce absolutely tastless awful. Ordered chicken Fettuccine alfredo also absolutely over cooked tastless even the chicken parmesan awful. I ordered a steak stir-fry . So spicy and the sauce was horrible I could NOT even eat it i sent it back. Because there was NOTHING else on there menu I even liked I ordered a plain hamburger no fries and they could NOT even get that right. God awful spicey sauce on it and black Angus beef whice I absolutely hate. The whole meal and experience a complete write off. I will Never go back there again. Now I stuck with a 50 dollar gift card that will not be able to use. A complete rip-off. read more

I wish I could tell you how the food was, but we sat down for lunch on father's day 2023 and waited 25 minutes to make our drink order before giving up and going someplace else. Don't dine here unless you have time to spare. read more

Wish I could rate this experience 0 stars cause 1 star is too much credit. Just came here with 4 friends after 18 holes of golf, so we were pretty hungry. Took 30 mins for the drinks to come partially because they even forgot we were there even thought were the only table on the balcony. One of the drinks, a Caeser was luke warm, all the ice had even melted. Beer was warm but atleast it wasn't flat. Took 40 mins before they even took our lunch order. A poutine, a wrap with sweet potatoe fries, a flatbread and a stir-fry. Took another 40 mins for the food to come as simple as the order was. When it did arrive:The flatbread was cold as if it came out of the fridge. Chicken caeser wrap had one strip of chicken and the sweet potatoes fries looked like they spent about 15 seconds in the fryer. Under cooked soggy floppy fries. Stir fry was uneatable as well. The poutine was at kinda of warm and my buddy only ate it cause he was so hungry. They took the wrap and the flatbread off the bill since they were basically untouched, so they get credit for that but still charged us for the poutine and the stir-fry but gave us a 20% discount. We didn't even eat 20% of the stir-fry. Manager didn't even come by after we complained to the waitress. Manager only came by after we ordered drinks to apologize for how long they were taking. read more

I went to this restaurant for breakfast as I had good experiences in the past with this chain. I had eggs Benedict and my friend had eggs Benjamin. Both were horrible. Bacon dry, eggs overcooked, salmon not fresh, hollandaise lumpy. The waitress was nice and patio is pretty. Coffee was horrible. I definitely will not return. Will do Sunset Grill in the future as their quality at different locations is more dependable. This was horrible and definitely over priced and lacking quality. read more

Gotta say it was very disappointing. The Symposium isn't what it used to be, when it was on King St, in Waterloo. We ordered calamari as our usual app and looked and tasted like a frozen bag of ready made. No light crispy coating with delicious dips---just fishy, tasteless, rubbery rings with horseradish and ketchup. The rest of our food was adequate but no offer to take the uneaten appetizer off our bill. We used to stop into the old Waterloo Hotel location quite regularly but will never return to Symposium. read more

We went with friends for lunch. Service was fast and efficient. I had the pesto chicken flatbread which was a little soggy but good. My friend had a huge salad bowl with chicken which was delicious. The others had a chicken wrap with salad and vegetable wrap with Greek salad which were very good. One person had the french toast with bacon which was delicious. We would go again. read more

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We had such a bad experience I wanted to share with others. The servers were nice and the hostess was nice but when it came down to it they didn't help at all. My husband had the eggs florentine - they were fine but bland. I had the fish tacos which were not good at all, but I ate them because I assumed I just picked wrong on the menu. The prices were very high for what we received. My chai latte was good. Disappointed with the meals we still decided to go for cake. We got the hummingbird cake. Looked beautiful, we both took a bite and immidiatly spit it out. It was hard like it had been left out for days. We immidiatly asked our server to please take it off the bill it was clearly hard and old and asked for the bill. The server came back and said she couldn't take the cake off the bill because "that's the texture of the cake". My husband said ok, and paid the bill. I was super upset because I've never sent food back before in my life as it's usually not justified. But this was really gross, and they really dropped the ball. It wasn't worth talking to a manager about. I'll just leave this here instead. ***update we just got home and have both been sick, not a joke I think we have food poisoning. Now my mission to warn others read more

Very friendly staff and management makes you feel welcome in this newly opened spot in the neighborhood. They might have had some kinks to work out early since they've only been open 6 weeks. Now that we've dined here a couple times now and have family that has been more frequently I can say I would recommend breakfast, lunch, dinner or just desert. read more

NEVER EAT HERE! We just had the worst experience here and will never return. We used to be regulars but after this morning's experience we will never return. Just a couple of things that were unacceptable with our visit this morning: - It took 40 mins to get water and it would have been longer except that we went up and asked where our drinks were. The milkshake we had ordered was melted by this time and it was sent back.q - Of the 3 food orders we placed, 2 of them came out not cooked. The eggs were uncooked and still raw and the eggs Florentine had raw spinach and an uncooked English muffins - The food and out drinks came out at the same time after the 40 min wait - Not once during the wait did our server, if you can even call her that, came over to check on us- in fact she was on the verge of rude to us - The server not once came over to check on us and so we finally went up and spoke with the manager, explained the situation. He recognized us and said he would comp the bill for us and we were good to go - Our server then came over and asked if we wanted a box to take home the uncooked food and said she would bring us the bill - She then proceeded to go and clear off tables instead of bringing us a bill - After 10 more mins of waiting I went up to the coffee and cake bar and asked for confirmation that our bill had in fact been comped and we were good to leave - At this point I had to explain once again the situation when our server and the manager who had "comped" our bills was standing there. At this point they informed me that they had only took off 50% from one meal and 25% from the other. Which worked out to an $8 discount. There was absolutely no excuse for this. The service was horrible and the food was no better. Do not waste your time or your money. This place will be out of business before long. They clearly do not care about the customer experience and their reputation. read more

Symposium Cafe Restaurant Waterloo - Raw 3 Fresh Eggs, Any Style - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Waterloo, Ontario

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Just got back and had to send back milkshake as it basically tasted like chocolate milk. They re-made it and then same issue. Showed the waitress a straw and released it and basically water texture. She didn't look like she really cared. I'm not paying $5 for a chocolate milkshake that didn't even taste like it had ice cream. Service really slow too. At the end wife asked for bill and prob waited 10 mins but nothing. I went up there to pay and she said wait a minute - she then proceeded to print it out. This should have been done when we asked for it and not left waiting. Will not be returning as other places in the area are better. Agree with other recent reviews - we won't return and suggest you don't either. read more

SLOWEST SERVICE EVER! We live close by and come often. The service is always slow. Today it is especially slow and the place is medium busy. 35 minutes for ANY beverage to come, including water. Just awful!!!! Very disappointing and the food is only OK. After today's lack of service I will never be back! Finally when the food came the eggs were not cooked and no one came back for 30 minutes to check on us and see how everything was so finally when we spoke to the manager he chomped 25% on the one plate and 50% for another yet the bill was still over $53 for what was $12 of good! Horrendous! Absolutely awful service even after we complained it was not clear what was being done, we were unsure if we were able to leave or what because our server actually never came back to the table. We had to go to the coffee bar and ask if we could at least pay for the 2 drinks we had (when the "discounted" bill came, to our dismay). We will never be back this was all around a BAD experience! DO NOT GO HERE! read more

Very slow service. Very poor attention to details. Management doesn't seem to give a hoot about improving service.

A FRIEND AND i WERE AT THE RESTAURANT THE DAY BEFORE Mothers Day The restaurant only had one table left. .the place looked harried. the food smelled delicious. we sat down at the only table available except the ones at the bar. We ordered quickly and waited one hour and ten minutes for our food. we order the symposium burger which was delicious. the wait was almost unbearable. We order coffee and a drink to start and that took 40 min. to arrive. The waiter seemed to be the first or second day on the job or perhaps she worked in the office. Service was very slow everywhere. Staff were leaving. the manager wouldn't talk to us. food was delicious and the cook didn't seem to have any problems. food was hot burgers were fantastic and sacraments were yummy. We ordered cake to eat there and cake to take home it was soooo good. But the dessert chef left and we had to get someone to serve and cut our cake. We were offered no compensation for long waits. We will go back because the food was so good. It had recently opened and had problems obviously in staffing and management. Hope these get ironed out soon. read more

Wish I read reviews before going here for brunch today. It was just a friend and myself. Service was very friendly, however food took over 30 mins to come out. My friend ordered the French toast with a side of bacon. The waiter informed us they were out of bacon (really?!!) and offered turkey bacon as a substitute. My friend had never tried turkey bacon before, so decided to give it a try. When I received the bill, there was an extra charge of $1.50 for the turkey bacon that was never mentioned! I found that to be very sneaky and would not return back for mediocre food. read more

Have been here many times and each time was very enjoyable. Often come here for the specialty coffees (especially the hot chocolate). Staff is always friendly, but can sometimes be a bit slow. Wait time seems to be about the same no matter what time of day or how busy the restaurant is. Have ordered the seafood pasta here many times and enjoyed it each time. Lunch is also very tasty, especially the sandwiches and daily soups. read more

My visit to the symposium cafe at Erb St was absolutely horrendous. First of all, the wait time for my breakfast (3 eggs, toast, hash browns and bacon) took over 45 minutes and during that time only once did the waitress come over to check on how we were doing. It was not until 40 minutes after we ordered that we then decided to speak to management. We spoke to Raj (owner of the restaurant) and he not only made semi-racist jokes about our skin colours being white and that we should have better patience, but he also did not give us ANY compensation for our wait. Once we received our food, it was very obvious that it was rushed out since the eggs were partially burnt and also gave us turkey bacon instead of pig bacon. In my opinion it is a waste of time to go to this restaurant and I will never be attending again after that poor experience I had. 10/10 do NOT recommend. read more

We were so excited when this restaurant opened up less than five minutes from our house. I had been to other Symposium's and was most impressed with the food and the chain but non-chain approach. Chain because there were systems in place but non-chain in the feel of the restaurant. Well that must have gone completely out the window with this Symposium. We visit Friday night at about 8:30 pm and when we walked in there were numerous tables that hadn't been bussed and this gave a first impression of disorganized, dirty restaurant. Our server was friendly but that's where it stopped. She knew nothing about the menu, told us Greek Salad Dressing was discontinued and no longer being offered by the chain, then proceeded to offer Ranch as a substitute -- who does that?? We were almost done our dinner when our glasses of wine came -- she said the bartender was "tending to an issue at the bar" - we were seated outside and I had a full view of the bar with the bartender leaning on the bar looking for something to do. The food was not good. I ordered a Chicken Pesto Flatbread and it was obvious it was sitting under the heatlamps for 40 of the 45 minutes it took to get our food. My husband had a steak and though it advertised it as 9 ounces, I doubt there was 4 ounces there. It was obvious there wasn't a manager on duty or I would have addressed my issues on site rather than social media. The kicker was I went to La Banane - one of the top restaurants right now in Toronto the night before and the total bill for 3 people was $135 which included 1 cocktail, 1 beer, 2 glasses of wine, foie gras, fried chicken, sides and dessert ! Symposium was $100 for 2 people for 3 glasses of wine, 1 beer, 1 steak and a Flatbread pizza. There is absolutely no value whatsoever in this restaurant -- I could forgive a bad server if the food is amazing but honestly the food here wasn't even worth a 1. This is probably one of most poorly managed restaurants I have ever been in and so bitterly disappointed because we need a local restaurant outside of the traditional chains in our area. That being said I vowed that night I will never dawn the door of a chain restaurant again. It is so obvious this restaurant is franchised by an absentee owner who is looking for a tax write off who could care less about his customer and for that I have absolutely no time for especially when there are such good local restaurants owned by people who just want to serve the best food possible and appreciate the people who support them. Sadly none are within five minutes. read more